Beyond
by it makes sense in context
Summary: Set several years into the future, Armin has begun to loose sight of his childhood dream.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey Armin?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you still want to go beyond the walls?"

"We have important business here, Eren." Armin sighed. "We just solidified Historia's rule by finding the cure. Be patient."

. . .

"Hey Armin."

"Yes I want to go beyond the walls, but we're so busy. Sorry Eren"

. . .

"I'm needed in the capital, I won't be going beyond the walls anytime soon, Eren."

. . .

"You're going to shoot him down again today, aren't you?" Annie folded her paper.

"Don't start this."

. . .

Of course Armin still wanted to travel beyond the walls, into the untamed and unexplored wildernesses, to see the Salt Oceans, Seas of Fire and Ice Rivers. It was his childhood dream. One he would hopefully someday accomplish, but taking care of the disbanded Garrison, Survey Corps and Military Police ate his time. Deciding how to best protect what was left of the walls from the remaining nearby titans, dispatching squads to administer the vaccine and . . .

"Armin."

"I'm busy, Mikasa. The shifters leaders are,"

"I know." Mikasa sat down opposite him, careful of her 3dmg. She was one of the few who still operated with it. "Care to explain why Eren is refusing to talk to anyone?"

"He keeps pestering me about the outside, I just don't have time to go."

"What, you think the Queen wouldn't give you time off if you asked for it?"

"I have duties Mikasa."

"I know, they just don't seem to be the ones you wanted when we were kids."

. . .

_"__The Corps are officially disbanded." Commander Hange Zoe's voice shook as she uttered the words. "We are no longer required to perform the duties we were created to do. The research has been completed and the only job left is to administer the vaccine, which is apparently a job being kept for the Military Police or what's left of it." She added bitterly. This had been her research, her life, something she had dedicated hours to, spent sleepless nights searching for, and she wouldn't even be hailed as the hero at the end. She may have made the cure but the MP's would deliver it, and that was all that mattered to the populace. "You still have options, however. The Nation still need protection. Titans are no longer our only threat. You can still sign with the army or the Queens Guard." Hange wiped away a tear. "The Corps are no more, and I appreciate the sacrifice each of you were prepared to make. I have only one more thing to tell you. Corporal Arlert will be placed as the head of Armies. He is your first port of call if you want to join with the Armies again. Regardless, I wish you all the best with your future._

"I don't want to remember that." Armin turned onto his side. It was two am and he hadn't slept the night before. "I'm not avoiding my dreams. I will get to the outside someday. I'm just busy now."

. . .

"Armin."

"What, Eren?"

"Look at me."

"I'm busy." Armin scribbled down a few more notes. "I'm trying to sort out the mess that it the former MP."

"Just look."

"Fine." Armin sat up straight, pulling off the glasses the doctors had given him after his last visit.

Eren was wearing his Survey Corps uniform.

It had been five years since they graduated to the Corps, Four since Historia took the throne and two since the cure was found. In the time since Eren last wore the uniform his wrists had begun poking out of the sleeves.

"The Survey Corps was disbanded Lieutenant Jaeger."

"Don't you remember what this symbolises? What it meant when we put it on for the first time? What these wings represent?"

"_For the Glory of Humanity._" Armin replied in a dull voice. "That's what I'm doing."

"It's the Wings of Freedom, you bastard." Eren leaned over the desk and grabbed a fistful of Armin's shirt.

Not even glancing at Eren's hand Armin met his eyes. "Control yourself Jaeger."

"At least I'm still myself, at least I haven't forgotten my dreams, Commander Arlert."

Armin and Eren didn't speak for a year after that.

. . .

"Are you two going to make up?" Annie sat opposite Armin. She was visiting the capital and this was a habit of theirs, meeting over a few drinks. "I spoke to Mikasa today so I know everything about what happened. Did you know that Eren proposed? They're getting married in the spring."

"Tell them my congratulations." Armin muttered, taking a sip of his whiskey.

"Why the hell are you still so pissed off?" She glared at him. "Anger isn't good for someone in your line of work."

"You don't deal with the idiots I do."

"Don't try changing the subject."

"Whatever, let's try and find Jean."

"Excessive drinking isn't either." She followed him of the door, throwing a few coins on the table. "What are you and Jean-bo up to these days anyway?"

. . .

"The Queen requests your presence." The message boy shook as he stood in front of Armin's desk.

"Tell her I am busy organising her armies supply shipments of the cure."

"She said that this was more important than anything else."

Looking up from his papers Armin locked his eyes with the boy's. "Did she say why?"

"No Sir.

_This had better be important,_ he thought to himself.

. . .

"Ah you're finally here." Historia smiled warmly. They were in her office so obviously this was a confidential meeting. "Close the door."

"Yes Ma'am."

Historia threw Armin a withering glance. "Why do I put up with you?"

"Your armies would starve under anyone else."

"Hmph." Armin's eyes were drawn to the area behind Historia where Ymir stood. "Any idiot could run those supply chains."

"I'd like to see you try."

"She will be." Historia spoke up. "While you are outside the walls."

"Excuse me?"

"She's sending us outside the walls."

Armin spun around to face the new voice. "Jaeger."

"Oh don't be so childish." Historia sighed. "I'm sending you, Mikasa, and Eren on an expedition beyond the walls. The Shifters have asked that Annie joins you, seeing as they don't know much about what lies beyond either."

"I'm sorry but I will have to politely decline this mission." Armin crossed his arms. "There have been riots in –"

"She said that I will be taking care of that." Ymir met his eyes. "You are needed to go exploring beyond the walls. That's what you and Eren always wanted wasn't it? To see the lands beyond the walls?"

"Oh relax Ymir, he's a lost cause. He's already forgotten why we joined the Corps in the first place, and what they stood for." Eren had a sarcastic smirk on his face. "All those ideas and all those books he read, he's forgotten. He has no wanderlust anymore, no desire to discover the world. Just leave him with a desk and paperwork, leave the adventuring to the rest of us."

"You actually think I don't want to go?!" Armin grabbed Eren's shirt and shoved him against the wall. "You think I don't want to learn? I have been doing my job! While you have been out curing titans or helping with research, I have spent almost every single day organising the mess this country calls a military. I want to be out there. I. Want. To. See. The. Friggin. Ocean. That was my dream, that was what my parents died doing. You do not tell me what I do."

"Really? Because you let everyone else do exactly that." Eren grabbed Armin's wrist. "Let go of my shirt."

"I am going to feed you to the first Titan we see." Armin let go of Eren's shirt and turned to Historia. "I will be participating on this expedition, although I take no responsibility for anyone returning alive."

"That's why I'm allowing Annie to join the trip, maybe she can stop you killing each other."

**Hi! So this is my first SNK fic (well the first I published). I'm also putting this up on AO3, and I have a rough outline for the rest of the story. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this, please leave a review, they can help inspiration immensely.**


	2. Outside

"Oh, so you finally arrived."

"I'm early, Jaeger." Armin pulled his horse into line with Annie's. "If I'm not much mistaken, your girlfriend is the one taking the longest."

"Fiancée."

"Doesn't change the fact that she will be saving your ass numerous times on this trip."

"Both of you, shut up." Annie hissed. "You are _adults._ Mikasa and I should not have to mediate every conversation you have. Where is Mikasa anyway?"

"She wanted to pay her respects at our old house." Eren's grip tightened on his reigns. "She hasn't been back in Shiganshina since we were ten."

"Oh." Annie bit her lip and stared at her reigns, remembering her role in the events eleven years prior.

They stayed that way for several minutes, none of them speaking, each reflecting on the events of that day.

"Hey are you guy's ready to go?" Mikasa appeared to the left of them, steering her horse next to Eren's. "I'm finally getting excited about this you know"

"You've been crying." Eren leaned over on his horse to hold Mikasa's face. "I'm sorry I didn't go with you."

"I can't blame you, it was tough going back. " She smiled at him. "But now were advancing forward right, we can let go of the past."

"Argh can we go now?" Armin shifted in his saddle. "I don't know about you guys, but I really want to go beyond these walls as soon as possible."

"So eager to get eaten? There are still titans." Annie pointed out. "We may be able to 'cure' or 'heal' them or whatever but we aren't done with that yet."

"Which is why we have you and 3DMG." Mikasa rolled her eyes before nudging her horse forward so she was in the hole in the wall. "We have our objective, we ride out due south for one week, record and map everything we see, this is mostly Armin's duty, then we turn around and head back. Estimates say we would travel about two-hundred miles during this time, if we just rode, only stopping to eat and sleep. But we will be stopping a lot, so don't expect for us to go much beyond a hundred miles."

"Let's just go." Eren urged his horse, heading for the hole which the Colossal Titan had kicked in the walls years before.

Sighing, Armin pushed his glassed up his nose. "I agree."

"You know, I can't believe this is the first expedition of discovery." Annie rode beside Armin. "I'm surprised Hange hadn't demanded they were launched."

Armin smiled. "She insisted we got the vaccine dealt with first. And anyway, she won't be going into the field anytime soon. She and Levi both retired from active duty. They're married now, with a daughter. Hange still spends a lot of time researching or in the lab, and Levi helps a little. We're going to be handing all our notes and samples from this expedition over to them."

"Ahh." Annie nodded her head. "What happened to the commanders, Erwin, Nile and Pixis?"

"Retired and giving me trouble. Forever dropping by the office and telling me I have it all wrong."

"And what's the deal with the Queen and Ymir?

"Officially Ymir is the Head of Guards and Historia's most trusted advisor. Unofficially she is her consort. Most of the court knows what's going on and have accepted it, but a few of the advisors still have a problem. There is no Official Heir as Historia has no blood relatives, though in the event of her death, serious injury or illness I am to take Regency." He spat the last part out as though it tasted bitter. "She refuses to name an official heir, and chances of her marrying are slim to none. And if word of this gets to your superiors, I will kill you before you can blink."

"My lips are sealed." Annie smiled. "I am already viewed as a dissident for throwing the plan for over taking humanity. 'Ambassador' is a way of keeping me and my 'poisonous ideals' out of the country."

"About Historia, didn't she ask you to father a child on her?" Mikasa dropped back, joining their conversation.

"Where did you hear that?"

"I have my ways."

Armin's eyes flicked to Mikasa's face, but it was impassive as always. "It's true, not that it matters. I refused. I won't father a child whose life I can't be a part of."

"So it wasn't because of Jean." Mikasa turned her head to face Eren. "I was right, you owe me a silver."

"Jean and I are just friends."

"Armin, I am in charge of the hidden guard, I know and see all. Nothing is hidden from me."

"That part of the relationship failed, your spies-"

"Hidden guard."

"Give terrible information." Armin finished. "So what ended up happening with Reiner and Bertoldt?"

"Reiner spends his days training the newest army recruits, he and Jean should share training methods, and nobody has seen Bertoldt in years." Annie shook her head. "You guys knew what he was like, at least while he was in human form. Well, what both of them were like really. They were welcomed back with open arms. Reiner is trying to atone to himself, most of the kids he trains are orphans who would otherwise be left to die. Bertoldt just disappeared with no warning. As far as I know he's living in the mountains."

"I see." Mikasa nodded.

"That does not go to your superiors."

"Stop." Armin pulled up his horse and got off.

"Armin, it's a fern." Eren pulled up his horse. "You have seen a million of them."

"I have never seen a fern like this." Armin balanced his note book on his knee and began scribbling furiously "Total frond length, 3 feet, width, 8 inches, colour . . ."

"Relax, just wait." Annie smiled. "I thought that was the point of this mission.

"I thought it was to see the ocean?" Eren still hadn't gotten off his horse.

"We won't see the ocean on this expedition, Eren." Annie sighed "Lakes, maybe, but no Ocean."

"Have you seen the ocean, Annie?" Armin asked from his perch on a rock, eyes never once leaving the plant he was now trying to draw.

"No-one has. We're only going a hundred miles. I've been that far and not seen the ocean." Annie gave a small smile. "Sorry, maybe on the next expedition."

**Thanks for the kind words, follows and favourites. This one is a little shorter, but the next should be longer.**


	3. Contained

"So this is as far as we go then, Huh?" Annie was sitting on a rock staring at the setting sun.

"It's been seven days." Mikasa called from beside the fire. "Armin stop trying to write, it's getting dark. You'll ruin your eyes more than you have already."

"I'm fine." Armin mumbled, fingers deftly guiding the pen across the page. "Eren, can you stick this flower in the press?"

It was the seventh day of their expedition and tomorrow they were set to begin the trek back to the Walls. The course of the trip had seen several new species of animal rediscovered, a multitude of plant varieties found, cuttings of all were currently neatly packed into the flower press, and a softening of the animosity between Eren and Armin. Both were here with the same goal and dream, and over the course of the trip the gap between their fundamental ideologies had begun to close. While they could still not be called friends, they were closer than they had been in over a year.

"I still find it weird that we haven't seen any traces of human civilisation." Eren pulled the press out of one of the saddle bags.

"Humans retreated behind the walls long before the titans appeared." Annie countered. "What do you expect?"

"At one point the human population reached more than 7 billion people, Annie." Armin closed his notebook. "They should have left ruins, ancient structures to be ravaged by time. My books mentioned monuments which had been standing for thousands of years, _when those books were printed._ I find it hard to believe that humans just vanished. There should be entire cities, roads, even just the bones of humans who were killed by titans, not including those from the failed corps missions. We travelled for a week and saw none of this."

"So?" Eren looked up.

"So something is going on here." Armin stood up. "I want to know what. We head back within the walls riding at full pace. That should take us three days. Next is harder, we convince Historia to allow us three more expeditions, North, East, and West. Do not tell anyone within the walls about the lack of evidence of human existence. Not even the Queen."

. . .

It ended up taking them four days to return to the walls, and a week to gain Historia's approval. Sasha had ended up joining them on their trip north, Connie on their trip east and Jean on their trip west. Each trip had yielded the same results, new plants, wildly differing geography (the 'Ice Rivers' were real), and a complete lack of evidence of human activity in the area.

"So are we going again?" Jean asked from his seat in the back of the room. The seven of them were gathered in tavern deep in the capitals underground which had become the base of their operations. "Maybe we didn't travel far enough."

"We travelled far enough." Armin spread a decrepit map on the table, weighing down the corners with a tankard of beer, his ledger, a candlestick and one of the remaining books on the world before the walls. "We are approximately here." He tapped the map then drew his finger north, south, east, and west. "We should have seen the ruins of all of these cities."

"Maybe you got the location wrong." Eren suggested.

"Not likely." Armin glared at him. "Speaking from the land type and ethnicities described in this book, this is the most likely place. And even if I was going to go from here," He jabbed at the map. "Or here. We would have hit cities, towns, villages and manmade landmarks in all directions. This just doesn't make any sense. How could entire cities have disappeared? Those cities would have been at least the size of Shiganshina or the Capital."

"How do you know that map is accurate?"

"Annie, it's all we've got, leave him alone." Mikasa leaned over the map. "So why do you think there is no trace of ancient humans, Armin?"

"It's obvious and none of you can see it." Connie stood up and leaned over the map. "Something is being hidden from us. They erased their history, like they tried with Historia. They don't want us to see or to know. Ignorance is the easiest way to control a population. We probably shouldn't even be looking, this could brig us major trouble."

"So you would rather live in ignorance then?" Eren asked.

"Emphasis on the live." Connie folded his arms. "This is something we probably shouldn't mess with. Armin himself gave the order not to tell anybody out most important findings."

"If you want out the door is that way." Armin met Connie's eyes. "Leave for all I care. Go and live your life. Just do not breathe a word of what happened here or on our expeditions to anybody."

"I'm not leaving. I'm just trying to remind you that even if Historia is in charge, and even with how much progress has made, the wall cult still controls most of the high ups. We're treading dangerous waters." Connie cracked a smile. "But hey, I'm with you until we get answers."

"And Sasha?"

"I'm not leaving." The woman cracked a smile. "This is interesting, far more interesting than being part of the rank and file, I mean I love it there too, but seriously, you guys are my comrades. I'm with you until the end."

"Good." Eren cracked a smile. "Horse Face?"

"Can't let a Suicidal Maniac have all the glory. I'm in."

. . .

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow another mission beyond the walls." Historia's words rang throughout the throne room.

"Why not?" Armin lowered his eyes to stare at the ground.

"You are needed within the walls, the military is in shambles –"

"The military is fine." Armin snapped. "Ymir has a good control of them and it's running smoothly. Sure there are some things I would do differently but –"

"So you admit that the current way they are being run is imperfect?"

"That is not what I said at all." The tone of his voice rose. "Ymir is doing a fi-"

"You will return to active duty as Commander of the Armies, effective immediately." Historia turned her back to stare out the window. "I'm look forward to your continued co-operation. You are dismissed."

"What are they making you do, Krista?" His expression softened, this wasn't like her, she had always seen things through to the end.

"I said that you are dismissed, Commander Arlert." Her mouth was set in a hard line as she gripped her skirt tightly. He was too hard to fool, had always known when he was being played for a fool. That was why lying to him was difficult for most people, not because of his so called innocent appearance.

"As you wish, My Lady."

. . .

"Goddamnit." Armin slammed the door of his office. "All our fucking progress for what? Nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing." He threw himself into his chair. "They're fucking controlling her, and I know why. God-fucking-damnit." He slumped over his desk. "My fucking fault." He muttered in the papers which still covered it. "That or they don't want us to find something." He mused. "Combination of the both really, stop one thing from being discovered by holding another over her head. Who do those idiots think they are? Only one person ever beat me at chess and they aren't likely to help any backwards, mind-controlling, manipulative, scheming conspiracy. They'd probably stab them through the eye before they finished explaining their plan." At this point Armin was thinking out loud. "So what do I do.?" He stood up and began to pace. "Exposing them wouldn't be too difficult, but that could cause worse problems for Historia. Or . . ."

His eyes finally landed on the envelope sitting on his desk. Reading the contents a small smile crept onto his face. "That plan is so crazy it might just work." He walked over to the fire place and lit the tinder someone had thoughtfully left sitting in it. Casting the letter into it he stared as it burned. "You know, I really should give that girl more credit. When you back her into a corner, her true intelligence comes into play."

**I really enjoyed this chapter. I hope you did too :)**


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